NBC renews three dramas, makes Parks & Rec renewal official

The picture for NBC’s 2014-15 season became slightly clearer today, as it renewed three dramas and made Robert Greenblatt’s off-the-cuff renewal promise for Parks And Recreation from January’s winter TCA press tour official. The three dramas picked up—Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., and Grimm—weren’t really surprising, though some thought NBC would hem and haw over Chicago P.D. a bit more. (The show debuted well, then tapered off, but it still marks an improvement over anything else NBC has put in the Wednesdays at 10 p.m. hour recently.) Chicago Fire looks to be a player for the network for years to come, while Grimm holds its own on Fridays, which is something only a handful of shows can say anymore. No word on if Dick Wolf will throw Chicago Paramedics, Chicago High, or Chicago Press into development to create a weird Chicago-set workplace drama Pentateuch, but we have to assume this will be the case soon enough.

The case of Parks And Recreation is hardly a surprise either after Greenblatt’s announcement in January. But it’s still a case where the show—which now seems to regularly pull a 1.1 in the key demo—is getting renewed more for future upside (in that NBC’s parent company will have more episodes to sell into syndication and for streaming rights) than for immediate promise. The same will be true if (and probably when) NBC renews Community, though that decision is likely to come right down to the wire, thanks to Community being owned by Sony Pictures Television. There’s also no news on if season seven will be the last for Parks, since series star Amy Poehler has a development deal with the network and may be ready to try new things. However, if NBC just wants shows to keep the lights on, then Parks and probably Community could run for a few more years yet.

NBC had already renewed The Voice, Celebrity Apprentice, and freshman sensation The Blacklist a while back. The network still has a number of shows in limbo, including the aforementioned Community, second-season drama Revolution, and fifth-season drama Parenthood. That number also includes a bunch of new shows, like About A Boy (which has been performing admirably, if obviously propped up by its Voice lead-in) and Believe. On the Dick Wolf front, the future of Law & Order: SVU is still up the air, but we’ll be surprised if it’s canceled. NBC also has 27 potential new series in the mix, including four straight-to-series orders. Things could start getting crowded very soon.

(Yes, the network hasn’t renewed Hannibal, nor did we discuss it above. That’s because Hannibal, with its copious amounts of international co-production, will likely be renewed or canceled based on entirely different factors than the ones that governed the shows above. Don’t be surprised if a renewal for it comes sometime in the summer, in other words.)